Abstract

Two of several surface modification (heat-island reduction) strategies, increased surface albedo and urban reforestation, are evaluated via mesoscale meteorological and photochemical modelling of regulatory episodes in central and southern California. The simulations suggest that these strategies can have beneficial impacts on air quality, with increased albedo being relatively more effective than urban reforestation. The simulations also show that air quality indices, such as regional 1-h peaks, area peaks, 8-h relative reduction factors, 24-h averages, etc., improve for both central and southern California and that for the range of strategies evaluated here, the improvements in air quality can be significant. The simulations of southern California suggest that there may be a threshold beyond which further surface modifications tend to produce smaller net improvements in ozone air quality.

Tesche TW, McNAlly DE, Emery CA et al (2001) Evaluation of the MM5 model over the Midwestern U.S. for three 8-hour oxidant episodes. Prepared for the Kansas City Ozone Technical Workgroup by Alpine Geophysics LLC and Environ International Corp